Idiomysis Very small critter

Even though Lembeh is all about small things, some things are smaller than others. And they don’t come much smaller (or harder to film) than Idiomysis.

These are a tiny little crustacean that seem to hover around like flies. They are only a few millimeters long and are always in constant motion. This makes it very difficult to photograph or film them.

It has been a pet project of mine, over the last year or so, to try and get video of them, using my woefully inadequate equipment. My idea is simple…use the slow motion feature to capture these creatures, so you can actually see them. The trouble is twofold. One: The depth of field is very very small, and it’s impossible to re-focus, either manually or automatically, at these distances and speed that the Idiomysis move. Two: When I hit the ‘slow motion’ function on my camcorder, it goes into a three second 240fps auto mode. you hit it and it immediately takes the 3 second shot, with no control, no re-focusing…

So for a shot of these Idiomysis to come out I need the tiny little thing to just move up and down while it happens to be in focus, and not to move back or forth away to towards the camera. Believe me , this is not something that happens very much…

But finally, today, I think I have enough to present the world’s first macro slow motion (nearly all in focus) video of these creatures. They are fascinating little things, and have wonderful eyes, bodies and it is really cool to finally be able to see one.